In the News

Professor Lauryn Gouldin Discusses New York State Bail Reform on WCNY’s Connect NY

Crandall Melvin Professor of Law Lauryn Gouldin discussed the status and future of bail reform in New York on WCNY’s Connect NY program.

In response to a question about trying to gauge, not just what is happening but why things are happening the way they are in New York State, Gouldin says “I think the biggest thing, picking up on the point about recidivism is when we talk about bail reform, I think we don’t focus enough on the fact that pretrial detention leads to recidivism. There is study after study that demonstrates that detaining people before trial is not a public safety gain overall. We have long-term negative public safety impacts from detaining people before trial. So I applaud the fact that the reforms included more data collection. I think we need to do a lot more data analysis. Trying to figure out what causes crime to go down, or what, you know, led to this example of recidivism or that is really complicated so the more data that we have, the better. But I don’t– I think it’s been very hard to sort of dig through pretty fraught political conversation and actually get to the real facts and try to analyze what is actually going on.”

She was joined on the panel by Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick L’76, First Assistant Public Defender for Monroe County and College of Law Adjunct Professor Erik Teifke, and Albany Times Union reporter Josh Solomon.

Professor Shubha Ghosh Weighs in on Copyright Concerns in “AI-Faked Drake, The Weeknd Song Amps Music Industry’s IP Alarm”

Crandall Melvin Professor of Law and Director of the Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute Shubha Ghosh spoke with Bloomberg Law News for their article “AI-Faked Drake, The Weeknd Song Amps Music Industry’s IP Alarm.”

Ghosh discussed concerns related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and music copyright as the U.S. Copyright Office has not provided copyright protection to works entirely generated by AI. “In the Copyright Office’s view, it’s a bit like the photographer: Are you just pushing the button, or are you adding other inputs like framing the photo.”

Click here for the article (subscription may be required).

Professor Nina Kohn Discusses Issues Surrounding Guardianship and Civil Rights of the Elderly with The New York Times

In the long-format feature story in the New York Times, “The Mother Who Changed: A Story of Dementia” David M. Levy L’48 Professor of Law Nina Kohn provides perspective on the legal and sociological issues around aging, guardianship, and civil rights of the elderly.

“The question becomes, for the older adult, what are the barriers to evolving, to changing your opinions, to forming new relationships?” asks Kohn. She continues, discussing how behavior changes in the elderly may be interpreted.

Professor Paula Johnson Discusses Stand Your Ground Laws with Capital Tonight

Professor Paula Johnson, Director of the Cold Case Justice Initiative, discussed the proliferation of Stand Your Ground laws in response to the shooting of Black teenager Ralph Yarl in Kansas City, MO.

“One of the reasons why these laws are proliferating is because they have expanded the areas in which traditional self-defense laws would have other requirements,” says Johnson, citing the Trayvon Martin case as an example.

Professor Johnson also makes a direct connection between barriers to voting and public policy that hurts minorities and people of color. 

Professor Cora True-Frost L’01 Discusses Federal Court Rulings on Mifepristone

Professor Cora True-Frost L’01 recently appeared on CBS News New York to discuss the federal court rulings on Mifepristone. The segment covered the status of the drug, potential next actions, and state-level implications.

“The implications of a ruling that a judge can strike down the judgment of scientists who have ruled that a drug is effective is that judges can intervene in administrative agency decisions, generally, and they [judges] will decide whether a drug is effective.”

Professor Gary Pieples Discusses the FTC’s Proposed “Click-to-Cancel” Rule

Professor Gary Pieples spoke with Life Wire about the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed “Click-to-Cancel” rule that is intended to make canceling subscriptions easier.

“Companies have been using every trick in the book to make it so that once you order a renewable product, whether that’s a subscription to an internet service or a political donation, you struggle to stop the constant renewals,” said Pieples.

Professor Jenny Breen Comments on Whether a Sitting President Can be Prosecuted

Professor Jenny Breen spoke with Newsweek for the article “Can Trump Derail His Criminal Case by Becoming President Again?”

“Now if he’s elected and becomes a sitting president again, then those issues are brought back to the fore, the federalism issues, the constitutional issues … But I don’t think it’s possible to predict what would happen because again this has never happened before. So there’s no way to kind of look at precedent and see what typically happens in these cases because it’s the first time it has occurred.”